The present invention relates generally to feed and food ingredients and, more specifically, to a composition of hydrolyzed lecithins that have markedly improved functionality.
Attempts to improve animal performance have followed a variety of strategies, including efforts to improve digestion and absorption of nutrients. For this purpose, several feed additives based on emulsifiers have been marketed all over the world. There are broadly two categories of products. The first makes use of synthetic emulsifiers, such as ethoxylated ricinoleates, polysorbates, and sorbitan esters. Another class of emulsifiers is natural products such as lecithins. Soybean lecithin is widely used as an additive for animal diets. It is incorporated at levels ranging from 0.1 to 3% and acts to increase the digestibility of fats and their transport out of the liver. In some cases the lecithins are modified by enzymatic hydrolysis to change their functionality.
Lysolecithins, which are structurally related to lecithins can also be used to improve animal performance. Lysolecithins differ from lecithins in the way they exhibit emulsification. Lecithin has a low HLB-value (hydrophilic/lipophilic balance) which promotes oil in water emulsification. Alternatively lysolecithins have a higher HLB value which promotes oil in water emulsification. In the context of nutrient digestion this is an important element as lipids will be emulsified better in the intestinal tract which promotes absorption.
Lysolecithins, in particular lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC), are involved in a variety of important biological processes. Lysophosphatidylcholine is the mono-acyl derivative of phosphatidylcholine (PC) and can be produced by the action of phospholipases. The PC molecule is re-formed by the action of acyl transferase enzymes re-combining the fatty acid chain to the sn-2 position. The cleavage and reformation of this ester bond rather than de novo synthesis is the driver for the exchange dynamic of LPC in living cell membranes.
The precise lysophospholipids to be produced by the enzyme are dependent upon the constituents of the lecithin used as the phospholipid source and the conditions for enzymatic hydrolysis.
Lysophospholipids are known to be involved in regulation of guanylate and adenylate cyclase activity; chemotaxis of human monocytes; chemotaxis of mouse thymus lymphoma cells; activation of human T-lymphocytes and the impairment of endothelium-derived relaxing factor-mediated arterial vasodilation. They are also known to modulate smooth muscle contractility; induce changes to the conformation of calmodulin binding protein; modulate protein kinase-C activity; and stimulate guanasine triphosphatase hydrolysis of the pro-oncogene product p21.
Lysophospholids have important and varied roles within biological systems that are precisely dependent on the quantities of lysophospholipids available to the cell, and on the negative feedback processes, which further regulate these concentrations.